First of all, I DO own a Kindle Fire AND I read Ebooks on it…in fact, I LOVE it BUT I have always loved and preferred my paper books and I STILL read them as well! AND I still prefer my paper books…Having a Kindle has not cut down on me buying paper books much and as long as they’re around, I will be buying them. I know some people feel like I’m a traitor to read Ebooks, but I see it as simply the fact that I love to read so MUCH, anything that enables me access to even more books, some possibly for FREE, I will jump at the chance! And I have found new authors that I can honestly say I would never have read if it hadn’t been for my Kindle.

Paper books WERE my first love, though and will always have a special place in my heart. Memories of curling up with a good book as a child and escaping away from all that was wrong in my world sustained me through many a tough time. Every time I pick up a book today, it just makes me feel so giddy like a kid at Christmas and all the good memories come flooding back. I guess this is why I like to alternate between Ebooks and Paper books, because although BOTH ways I still enjoy the story, with Paper books, it just seems more magical and memorable for me.

I could now give you all the reasons why paper books are simply the BEST, but I found a short article in my Stephen King 2013 Desk Calendar that said it so much better than me and thought I would share! 🙂

THIS BOOK IS A WEAPON [AND 12 OTHER REASONS TO BUY PRINT] BY MATT BERGIN

Physical violence isn’t the only thing reading print books is good for. Consider the followin:

1. Self-Defense: A hardback copy of 11/22/63: A Novel will, ironically, considering the subject matter, stop a bullet. It will also put a person in a come if thrown or swung with enough force. While these may not be recommended uses of hardback fiction, you’ll be glad to know them in a dangerous situation.

2. Read by example: If you’re the nurturing kind or one of those “concerned for the future well-being of young developing minds,” you will be happy to know that children of adults who read grow up to be readers themselves. That may not be the case for children whose parents stare at their gadgets all day whether reading or not, or for kids who are handed a tablet that “reads” them an interactive storybook at bedtime.

3. Look Smart: Be it turning pages on the train or showing off the accumulated knowledge on a bookcase shelf, even dummies appear more intelligent with a book. Read on your phone or tablet and you may as well be flinging surly pigeons at stacked digital swine.

5. Archive to Survive: Technology is about upgrading replacing old models. Publishing offers new editions, too, which often makes what came before a valuable collector’s item and, depending on what was cut or added or redesigned, a testament to its time.

6. Kindling: Okay, fine, there are arguable plusses and minuses to print versus tech when it comes to agility in educational applications and real-time searching for a lost idea with a keyword versus through a stack of pages, but you can’t warm your home by throwing an Ipad, Nook, or Kindle onto the fire. In fact, it would be toxic. So there!

7. Build your Body and your Mind: That tension in your arms from holding up a large tome during reading time? That’s the burn. Read three more chapters to burn off that extra cookie.

8. Fortress of Ideas: Literally. Stack the books you’ve read to see the tangible accumulation of your knowledge. Far more fortifying than a few bits and bytes on your thumb-drive.

9. Unlimited Battery Power: Forgot your charger? Not a problem.

10. Future-Proof: Computers crash. Technology becomes obsolete. But upgrades and EMTs won’t wipe out your library. Unless we evolve into an underwater society, paper will survive long after e-readers are replaced with “mind-readers” or brain chips or lickable literature.

11. Green: Speaking of that underwater future, let’s try to avoid that, okay? Maybe in the long game, a single personal brain drive will be greener than a million printed copies sold….but what about all of the printed stories and knowledge already out there and the generations of competing tech models on the road to those brain chips that haven’t been built and processed and churned out by those factories, tainting our water and air with the next-generation pollutant?

12. Lap Cancer: It will be a thing. Thumb Cancer, too, probably.

13. Strong spine, strong mind: Not only does the physical act of reading-holding the book, cracking the spine, turning the pages, marking your place, even the act of organizing and perusing a shelved collection-help keep a reader cognitively keen and attendant to his or her literization, but a sturdy bound nook will always be there for the reader should his mind and machinery fail.

“He couldn’t see why people made such a fuss about people eating their silly old fruit anyway, but life would be a lot less fun if they didn’t. And there was never an apple, in Adam’s opinion, that wasn’t worth the trouble you got into for eating it.” ~from Good Omens